For years, freshwater flow to Florida Bay has been restricted nine months of the year to protect the nesting grounds of an endangered bird species – a species that may not even live there anymore. That could change soon.

On Dec. 5, at the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force Meeting in Washington D.C.,  SFWMD Executive Director Drew Bartlett announced support for an interagency effort to implement a new captive breeding program for the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow.

For more than 20 years, these birds have been a source of debate regarding Everglades restoration. The focus of the debate, sparrow subpopulation A, reportedly lives south of the Tamiami Trail, a man-made dike that intersects the natural Everglades.   

The Tamiami Trail was opened in 1928. Before the road was built, water sheetflowed across the landscape in a swath more than 25 miles wide. In the early years of automobile transportation, when wet season water levels were high, the road was closed and water flowed over it. Over the years, to accommodate heavier vehicles and heavier traffic between Tampa and Miami, the roadbed was built up, and water levels controlled to protect the road. Instead of a broad sheetflow, water movement was restricted to ditches with some access under the trail via culverts and water control structures. The interruption of the natural flow caused the land on the south side of the trail to dry out.

The sparrows were first documented in 1918 at Cape Sable, hence their name. Their original habitat was lost to hurricanes and development, but after the roadwork changed water flow in the Everglades, the birds were documented nesting there.

The Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, released Dec. 16, 2016 explained the Everglades restoration goals sometimes conflict with the habitat requirements for endangered species.

“Restoration activities that produce net benefits for a species at the system scale can often create negative local impacts on that species,” the report states.

According to the National Park Service (NPS) web site, the sparrows nest in dense, clumped grasses. The sparrows tend to avoid tall, dense, sawgrass-dominated communities, spike-rush marshes, extensive areas of cattails, wetlands with tall, dense vegetation, and areas of woody vegetation.

The sparrows build cup-shaped nests about six inches off the ground, making their nests vulnerable to floodwaters.

Researchers now believe areas that are now marl prairies south of the Tamiami Trail originally had muck soil on top of the marl, but that due to dry conditions, the muck oxidized.  Thus an actual “restoration” would destroy the sparrows’ current habitat.

Two of the water control structures that allow flow under the trail, S-12A and S-12B, are closed nine months of the year to protect the nesting grounds.

Sometimes birds who are pushed out their habitat can shift to new territory.  Migratory sandhill cranes that lost their winter habitat in Mexico established new nesting areas in South Florida.

But Cape Sable Seaside Sparrows only live about 4 years and according to the NPS they do not regularly disperse over large distances. It’s doubtful they could find other nesting sites. Losing their habitat in the Everglades could mean extinction.

Florida Department of Transportation work to raise portions of the Tamiami Trail is expected to be complete in 2026 would give water managers the capacity to move even more water under the Trail to Florida Bay. That puts Everglades restoration at odds with the Endangered Species Act.

A captive breeding program is proposed to save the endangered birds and move them away from areas that will be too wet for them when Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) projects are complete. It remains to be seen if any Cape Sable Seaside Sparrows are still in the subpopulation A area to catch. According to information shared at SFWMD meetings, the birds have not been seen there in years. According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, four adult birds were observed in 2019 and 2020, but no sparrows were observed there in 2021 or since.